Occupational Hazard

One of the things about writing a blog - you get a lot of "out of the blue" e-mails. I guess that's a consequence of becoming somewhat "known". I get e-mails offering me exciting ground level opportunities to engage in marketing or distributing radios or radio related electronics products. I also get e-mails with "exciting" new product developments. Generally, I just delete these e-mails, as they are not CW or QRP related, but every now and then one comes along that is rather interesting and catches my eye.

The other day, I received one such e-mail form VGC which is an electronics company in China (of course) informing me about a newer 50 Watt VHF/UHF mobile radio for under $200. Here's the link.

https://www.verotelecom.com/VERO-VR-N7500-50W-Dual-Band-Mobile-Radio-With-APP-Programming-p541441.html

I don't know if this is or ever will be FCC Type Accepted, or whether or not it's a piece of cr@p.  It's distributed here in the USA by GigaParts, so I guess it's somewhat reputable. But the one thing did intrigue me is that it is supposedly Bluetooth compatible and I guess that would allow you to program the frequencies via your smartphone, or a tablet.

I'm not in any way endorsing this product or advising anyone to buy it. Heck, for all I know, the app could be spyware. I certainly don't know if it's any good and I've never heard of this company before. The thing is that I've never heard of a radio that can be programmed via a Bluetooth compatible device before. Maybe one already exists and I'm so cooped up in my QRP CW bubble that I've never noticed it or heard of it before. Nevertheless, that's one innovation that I think would be cool to have.  Maybe the "Biggies" need to get on board with that concept.

I'm not that big into VHF/UHF, but especially in an EMCOMM situation - a radio that you could program frequencies into on the fly as needed, using your smartphone and not having to be hardwire tethered to a laptop? That would be neat!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

A rarity

Yesterday I did something I rarely do. As I was travelling home, I heard the NJ2SP repeater identify while I was in a location still pretty far away from South Plainfield. I picked up the microphone and announced that I was listening. Marv K2VHW came back to me and we had a nice conversation while I drove the rest of the way home.

What was so satisfying about it was when Marv told me my audio was rock solid and that I was making it into the repeater quite well. What a difference between this Hustler Hy-Gain antenna I'm using now and the cheap piece of ______ that I had been using before!

Our repeater is low profile by intent. It's mainly used for CERT activity , as well as for club activity throughout South Plainfield and the immediate surrounding area. For me to hit the repeater so well from Greenbrook, which is three towns away meant that my signal was travelling through North Plainfield, Plainfield and into South Plainfield. I was pleased to say the least.

As a Ham for 45 years, I know (in my head) that you should never skimp on the antenna and that it's the most important link in the whole radio station chain. But sometimes you just get frugal (read that as "cheap"), hoping that something less expensive will work just as well. This is especially true for mobile VHF/UHF antennas ----- most times it doesn't work that way, and you only end up spending more money to fix your mistake. Don't be like W2LJ, don't be tempted to go the cheap route!

Homebrew HF antennas, on the other hand, are a whole other story that I won't get into right now. Suffice it to say that many times you can roll your own skyhook that will will perform just as well as a commercial antenna for a lot less money.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least.

Hearing things? Or Poltergeists? Nah .............

I awoke at about 2:30 AM, like many men of my age do, with the necessity to make a trip to the bathroom. I made my way downstairs and when I got to the kitchen I heard a tiny voice saying something. The voice was so low and tiny, I couldn't make out what was being said. I was able to discern that whatever it was, it was coming from the rec room, and it was repeating every 15 seconds or so.

We have a Warner Brothers clock hanging on the wall in there. Each hour, a different Looney Tunes character announces the time. My first inclination was that the clock was broken and that I'd have to remove the batteries and all would be well. But that was not it. Except for the "tick-tock", there were no sounds coming from the clock.

The voice reappeared again, and this time it sounded like it was coming from behind me. I turned my attention to the bookcase. That's where the cordless phone resides as well as where all my HT's live.. I put all my drop-in chargers on one shelf and I have them all plugged into a power strip, this way everything is centralized. The power strip was off as all my batteries were up to charge. Or so I thought.

Again, at first I thought the cordless phone went bonkers and perhaps it was announcing that I had voice mail? No, it turned out that the tiny voice was coming from my Baofeng UV-5R. When I returned it to the shelf the other day, I must have forgotten to turn it off. About every 15 seconds or so, the HT was announcing "Low Voltage! Low Voltage!"

I didn't even know it could do that!

So if some day you wake up in the middle of the night, and you hear a tiny voice calling out to you from seemingly nowhere, it's not a demon, ghost or hob-goblin. It just might be your handheld radio telling you that it needs more juice!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Aggravation!

I was supposed to run the South Plainfield ARES/RACES Net last night at 7:00 PM local time. We hold it on the third Tuesday of the month. I went down to the basement and turned on my VHF/UHF radio that sits on the bench and ........nothing!

By rights, I should have run upstairs for an HT, or out to the car and used my mobile rig, but I still have enough Service Manager (stubbornness) in me that when something like this happens - I have to trouble shoot it - right away.

I was getting 13.8 Volts out from the power supply, but nothing at the radio. I checked the in-line fuses and they were fine. I checked the voltage at the transceiver end of the power cable and that was not fine. What the heck?

I checked all the connections at the fuse holders, made sure all the Ohm reading were zero from power supply to cable end and then hooked everything back up, turned on the radio - again nothing.  Argh!

Something told me to take a closer look at the Molex connector again. I swung the bench light over for more brightness, and sure enough, it looked like the blade on the one side looked a little bent, possibly not making contact with it's mate. I straightened it out, and snapped the Molex back together, the radio came on!

So here's the big question - how did this happen? I mean the radio was just sitting there. I don't remember moving it around or playing around with the cable in any way. I must have dome something without realizing it, because things like this don't "just happen". Do they? Molex connector innards just don't warp on their own and break contact. This one has me baffled. but it's fixed now (at least for now) so I won't beat my head against the wall trying to figure it out.

On the flip side, the Hustler VHF/UHF antenna on the car is really performing nicely. I can hear repeaters from a much greater distance than I was able to using that piece-of-crud-cheapie-antenna-that-I-should-have-known-better-than-to-ever-consider-using.  I was able to talk to Marv K2VHW on the drive home yesterday via a repeater that was a good 20 or so miles away from where I was stuck in traffic. 

The moral of the stories? Take wins wherever you can find them.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

That's it! I'm going!

To Hamvention and FDIM next year! God willing and the creek don't rise and I'm in good health and there are no family emergencies. I mentioned to Marianne that I'd like to go and that attending FDIM is on my bucket list and she had no problems.

May is always a busy month for us as both out birthdays are in May, Mother's Day is in May, but there are no more graduations to worry about missing ...........so hopefully it's a go for next year. I've been wanting to go for so long to actually meet some of the people I've talked to on the radio for years. So I will start saving my shekels now.

I got on the air for the Run For The Bacon last night. The K index was 2, and the solar flux was 200. According to the solar weather sites, that meant decent conditions, but I thought they were "meh" at best. Signals were so low on 20 Meters as to be deep in the noise and pretty much unintelligible. 40 Meters wasn't much better. I made three or four contacts and pulled the big switch. Maybe June will ne better.

The rest of the weekend was jam packed with house chores, so other than hunting a few POTA stations, there wasn't much on the air time. I spent a little time on Facebook, hoping to catch some big news from Hamvention, but it appears there wasn't any. Icom rolled out some circuit boards to keep everyone guessing about their next big deal, while Kenwood and Yaesu were silent.  Elecraft is still rolling in the wake of the KH1 introduction, so nothing new was expected from them.

I guess from a QRP standpoint the biggest news was QRP Labs QMX+. Attendance seemed to be good and the weather cooperated on Saturday, so I guess everyone is happy.

Outside, the weather was decent this weekend. That afforded me the chance to put the Hustler 2 Meter/440 antenna on the car that Joseph and Marianne gifted to me for my birthday. Wow! What a difference from the piece of (be nice, W2LJ!) that I had on there. The only drawback is that the radiator is 36" tall, so no more parking in the deck at work. I started parking in the regular lot this morning. Not a big deal when the weather is nice, right? But when the weather is nasty, it goes to show what Hams are willing to put up with for the sake of Amateur Radio.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Stuph

I looked at the QMX order list yesterday. I am # 670 in line. If QRP Labs continues to manufacture around 200 pieces a month, I figure I should see mine maybe in August or September. I can live with that.

For my birthday, Joseph and Marianne asked me what I wanted. My no name cheapie bargain basement mobile VHF/UHF antenna just isn't doing the job. I was coming home from a club meeting a few weeks ago and tried hooking up with Marv K2VHW on the way home. He was in and out and I was in and out and neither of us should have been. I had to chalk it up to poor performance from my off brand bargain basement purchase. I sent Joseph a link for a Hustler MX-270 antenna from GigaParts. It arrived last Sunday? Who delivers on Sunday besides Amazon? Anyway, it arrived late last Sunday and I'll put it on my car this weekend, if weather permits.

This means that I'll have to park in the parking lot at work, going forward, as the 36" radiator is just too tall for the parking deck. I bought the smaller antenna that's on the Jeep now, specifically because it doesn't hit the ceiling of the parking deck. However, it doesn't perform nearly as well as I had hoped ..... so I'll deal with the inconvenience of parking outside in order to get better antenna performance.

First World problem, right? But it's nice not having to get into a car that's been baking in the sun all day during the summer; or brushing off snow in the winter.

Other than that, not much new radio-wise. We're having typical May weather here, where it's sizzling one day and chilly the next - which of course makes the possibilities of thunderstorms a daily event.  The antennas have been disconnected since the weekend. I'm at the point in life where replacing expensive Ham Radio gear is not an option, so I have to be super careful with what I have.

I've always marveled at guys who change rigs like they change underwear. I've never been fortunate enough to be able to do that. And I guess that helps me to appreciate what I have maybe a bit more than most.

Today's "Blondie" comic strip kind of sums up my situation:

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

New piece of gear

I know there are a lot of Baofeng haters out there, but ......... for the limited time I spend on VHF/UHF, I'd rather put the big bucks into HF gear or accessories.

I purchased this Baofeng K5 Plus after hearing glowing reports on the nightly Middlesex County Chat Group Net from two local Hams for whom I have deep respect, Marv K2VHW and Dave K2ULF.  $29.00 from Amazon - how could you go wrong? I was ordering a new cordless phone for the house (yes, we still maintain a landline) on Sunday and decided "Why not?" and added it to My Cart. I was surprised as all get out when both the phone and the HT arrived the next afternoon, and I did not pay for expedited shipping!

The main reason I purchased it is because it is a tri-band radio including the 1.25 Meter band - 220 MHz. I do own a dedicated 220 HT, but it's so much more convenient to have all three bands in one radio - no juggling required.  Last night I successfully programmed in the NJ2EM repeater, which is owned and operated by the NJ State Police and is one of our main ways of communicating with them via Amateur Radio on behalf of Middlesex County AUXCOMM. The repeater is down the road a ways - pretty close to Trenton. Even so, I was able to raise the repeater and the S-Meter on the radio was almost full scale as it identified. That's not hard to believe as their antenna is near the top of the old UHF TV Channel 52 tower, which has to be one of the tallest in the state. It truly has statewide coverage, as during  monthly "test nets" I have heard every county in New Jersey check in without difficulty.

I did not purchase a programming cable and had a little trepidation about that. I was relieved to discover that manually entering repeater information is quite intuitive and not complicated at all, and once you've programmed in a memory or two, it gets even easier. When you use CHIRP, it's so easy to fill up memories with repeaters you never frequent, or are perhaps almost dead for the amount of inactivity on them. Manually programming the radio may take a bit more time and effort, but it should eliminate needless frequencies

Another neat thing about the radio is that when you press the "0" key for about three seconds, the most local NOAA weather station will pop on. I used to program that into my hand helds, but it became a nuisance when you go into scan mode and the scanning stops whenever you come to that memory. Another thing that I really like about this HT is that charging can be accomplished via a USB-C port that is located on the battery. I can charge my phone AND my HT from the multi-device charger that we have in our kitchen. Of course, the radio comes with the standard drop-in charger for "conventional" charging as well. I'm sure there are other features that I will come to know and appreciate as I use it more and more. 

There is one thing about this radio that exacerbates my OCD. The "EXIT" button that you press to get out of the menus is actually screened on the key as "EIXT".  I noticed that pretty much right off the bat as my brain went into "What !?!?!: mode. 

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

The Black Sheep of the Family

If you go on Facebook at all, it quickly becomes apparent that Baofeng HTs get very little respect. They are the Rodney Dangerfields of the HT world. I understand, in a way, as they are not really comparable in any way to units produced by Kenwood, Yaesu or Icom. They may not be as technically excellent or as elegantly engineered as radios from the Big 3, but in my mind, they do have their place.  

I own a UV-3R and a UV-5R. The UV-3R is my carry around and listen to repeaters HT. It's small, about the size of a package of cigarettes and it does what I need it to do. My UV-5R with the larger battery pack is my CERT / Public Service Event radio. Again, it does what I need it to do. No frills, no bells and whistles.

Not glowing endorsements for sure, but if something were to happen to either of these, such as dropping them, losing them, or whatever - I'm not about to have a heart attack. They may not be the best available out there, but they're easily replaceable without breaking the bank. Keep this comparison in mind, Baofengs are the Red Cups of the handheld world, as compared to the fine crystal drinkware that are Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu. And of course, you get what you pay for. If you're willing to accept Harbor Freight rather than Craftsman or Snap On - you get the drift, especially if you're not primarily a VHF/UHF Op.

Coming up this weekend:

Contests - to participate in or to be aware of:

CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest - https://www.cqwpxrtty.com/rules.htm

SKCC Weekend Sprintathon - https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/weekend_sprintathon/

4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint - http://www.4sqrp.com/SSS/sss_rules.pdf

CQC Winter QSO Party - http://www.coloradoqrpclub.org/contests/winter.htm

Special Events:

02/10/2024 | 75th Anniversary of Merci Train Boxcar

Feb 10-Feb 29, 0000Z-0000Z, NV7AL, Las Vegas, NV. American Legion Paradise Post 149 and 40&8 Voiture 306. 7.074 7.250 14.074 14.250. QSL. Robert Bencsko, 2548 Fort Lauderdale Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89156. This special event station is set up to raise awareness of the 75th Anniversary of 40&8 "MERCI Train Boxcar" Please check out the QRZ page. The 24th and 25th may be operating on location of the Nevada boxcar in Boulder City, NV Watch for us on DX Summit QSL with SASE to AD7J https://www.qrz.com/db/NV7AL

02/10/2024 | Commemorating the End of Operation Desert Storm (27FEB91)

Feb 10, 1700Z-2359Z, NI6IW, San Diego, CA. USS Midway Museum Ship. 7.250 14.320; 14.070 PSK31; DSTAR on PAPA System repeaters. QSL. USS Midway Museum COMEDTRA, 910 N Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92101. www.qrz.com/db/ni6iw

02/10/2024 | Green Valley Amateur Radio Club Churches On The Air

Feb 10, 1700Z-2100Z, WE7GV, Green Valley, AZ. Green Valley Amateur Radio Club. 14.242 14.262 14.282. Certificate & QSL. Tom Lang, 1085 W. El Toro Rd, Sahuarita, AZ 85629. This Special Event includes three local churches on the air at the same time from the Green Valley area on the published frequencies + or -. www.gvarc.us

02/10/2024 | Lee Jackson Celebration

Feb 10, 1730Z-2200Z, N4SCV, Gainesville, FL. Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1424. 7.214 MHz 14.314 MHz. QSL. Ron Lewis, KN4ZUJ, 14714 NW 144th Street, Alachua, FL 32615. We look forward to talking with you. See you on the air on February 10th! VY 73, Madison Starke Perry Camp 1424 Sons of Confederate Veterans www.gatorscv.com

02/11/2024 | 10 Year Countdown to the 100th Anniversary of the Discovery of Pluto

Feb 11-Feb 19, 0000Z-2359Z, W7P and W7P/0, Flagstaff, AZ. Northern Arizona DX Association. 7.290 14.090 14.290 21.290. Certificate & QSL. W7P c/o NADXA, 6315 Townsend Winona Rd., Flagstaff, AZ 86004. www.nadxa.com

Personally, my VE Team has a session tomorrow morning.. Lots of last minute signups. We may have as many as eight candidates.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Some things coming

I wouldn't say I'm excited about a few things that I've got coming - but I'm looking forward to their arrival. One is that 15 Ah battery that's coming from Sunny California. It's made it's way to Texas as of the last time I checked the tracking number. It should be here this week. I did not get a chance to get to Federal Metals on Saturday with the old batteries. That will happen this coming weekend.

I also have a set of SideKx end plates and a cover coming for the shack KX3. I was horrified by how dusty and dirty it had become when I took that picture that I featured in last week's blog post. The lighting down in the basement isn't the brightest, so the camera revealed what my eyes didn't notice. I went down to the shack last Wednesday evening with some Windex, Q-Tips and some paper towels. It didn't take long to get it looking factory new.

The problem was, I knew it was only going to happen again. It's the basement and it's not a finished basement. I went on eBay and just for the heck of it, typed in "SideKX KX3" and much to my surprise a set came up! These were from an estate sale from an SK. According to the description provided by his daughter,  they were just sitting down in the basement and from the photos provided, it looks like they were never used. There was a "Buy It Now" option for $25 and after looking at the SideKX website, I knew that was a bit more than 50% off. I grabbed that set in a hurry.  I already have a set of SideKX on the portable ops KX3, so I've installed them before. This shouldn't be a problem.

The other thing that I have coming and will probably be my last Amateur Radio purchase for a long time is another QYT K-8900D for the shack. The one I had in the car and brought downstairs - well ....  when I damaged the coax to the antenna, I must have fried the finals. It will still transmit, but I cannot bring up repeaters that I can easily hit with a handheld. To prevent that from ever happening again to the mobile unit, I re-routed the coax to a position where it does not get crunched or pinched by the rear hatch door. You'd think that being a Ham for over 40 years, I would have done that the first time. Sometimes, my stupidity knows no bounds, and even surprises me now and then.

The QYT is not coming until Thursday according to Amazon, which is OK, but our ARES/RACES District Bureau Chief asked me to run the monthly nest Tuesday evening, as he'll be away on business. Luckily, the repeater has such excellent coverage that using a handheld won't be a problem or even noticeable. I guess I'll just temporarily attach the handheld to the J-Pole coax and will run the net that way.  The Northern New Jersey ARES Net follows a half hour later and the repeater on which that net  occurs does not have as good coverage. Sometimes 5 Watts doesn't make it when that repeater is in a cranky mood.

Lastly, I checked into the St. Max HF Net again last night on 75 Meters at 24:00 UTC. Those ferrites that I put on the coax - WOW! I was able to hear everyone last night! The past few weeks, the weaker signals were "getting lost in the sauce". Not last night! Yes, it was probably in part due to better band conditions as several of the check-ins had commented on, but the background noise was so much lower than it has been. I can't chalk that up to band condition alone, the ferrites had to play a big part in that , too.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Tagging along .....for now.

First off, let me reiterate something I think that all of you who read this blog already know - first and foremost I'm an HF guy. That is my main source of activity in Amateur Radio. I love connecting with other parts of the world using RF energy, especially at QRP power levels. I've not been a big VHF/UHF person. I do keep one in the car, of course, for nets and socializing with friends. The only other serious use I've made of VHF was when I used to utilize 2 Meters for the uplink to RS-10/11.

The club to which I belong, the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club, had a meeting the other night. I did not attend. The guest speaker from Yaesu and the topic of discussion was hooking our repeater to something called Wires-X.  I believe that's some sort of repeater controller / node linking hardware/software combo that will allow many different things to happen. 

To be honest with you, that doesn't excite me a that much. WIRES-X, DMR, FUSION, DSTAR, ALLSTAR - it's all just a bunch of alphabet soup to me. I am a dinosaur, a relic, an anachronism. I like analog, and I prefer that my radios generate RF, which then travels through the atmosphere to be captured by another radio at the other end of the connection.  Once you start hooking things up to the internet and use hot spots and all other means of "artificial propagation" my eyes get glassy and my mind goes numb. I have used Echolink a few times and my reaction is best summed up with one word - "meh".

That said - that's me. That may be the way the world is going and that's fine. I know there's a world of Ops out there who use these methods to communicate and it makes them quite happy - and in turn, that makes me happy for them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of these new technologies, they're just not my bag. Like I said, I'm a dinosaur. So as long as I can communicate on our repeater (and others) with my ancient and outmoded analog radios, I'll be a happy camper. The day that's no longer possible, and that I would be forced to purchase some kind of transceiver capable of digital communications is the day I give up VHF/UHF forever.

Kind of goes against the "pioneering spirit" I guess - but that's just me.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

New set up

I changed things around in the Jeep. This was the old set up for my little QYT-K8900D. I had it mounted to a board on the side of the center console. I put Velcro over the nuts on the console side of the board, so there would be no ugly scratches. The board extended back a ways and was held in place, quite snugly, by friction between the seat and console.

The sad thing is that W2LJ's eyes ain't what they used to be. It became hard to see what frequency the rig had stopped on when the scan function happened upon a QSO. At certain times of the day when it was especially bright outside, the display became even harder on these ol' peepers of mine.

It worked well enough, except for those drawbacks, which were unfortunate but not all that prohibitive. In actuality, I could have lived with it, but then one day I happened to run across this on eBay:

It's a bracket that fits in the cup holder. Perfect, as the cup holder was only being used for holding extra coins and the microphone, anyway.  The rig is now closer to my eyes and I can now easily see what repeater the radio has stopped on when a conversation is taking place.

If you're wondering - no, it does not get in the way of the gear shifter, nor does it prevent access to the parking brake release, even though the angle of the camera may make it look that way in the photo. I was a bit skeptical that road vibration and bumps in the roads would cause this bracket to jostle around from where I had set it, but no, so far it's been rock solid. Not bad for a piece of plastic that cost me about 20 bucks (with shipping).

My only complaint is that the microphone hanger that came with this brackety-thing is a hook type. The microphone supplied with the rig has no loop - just a mushroom type of button that protrudes from the back. The radio did come with a compatible microphone hanger clip, but the friction holding the mic in it's clip is so great that the clip HAS to be screwed in place somewhere on the dash, and I don't want to put holes in anything. You never know what wiring is hiding right behind the surface of anything in cars these days.

The microphone will call the other cup holder its home, unless Marianne is with me and she wants to use that one for its intended purpose.  For that brief amount of time, the microphone can ride shotgun in my lap, or on my seat next to my leg.

I know what you might be thinking - what's LJ doing with a piece of Chinese ......... in his car? Why not a Yaesu or an Icom?  The answer is that, like Ivory Soap, I end up listening for 99 and 44/100ths percent of the time. I rarely speak into the mic, unless it's to check into a net or perform some kind of ARES or CERT function. The receiver in this little rig is as good as any, and the 10 or 25 Watts that it puts out for such brief amounts of time serve the purpose. So why pay hundreds? I can put those $$$$ towards something I really want! (I'd rather be on HF anyway!)

While I'm thinking about HF - a few other things:

1)  The log summaries for Skeeter Hunt are coming in like gangbusters! There's still a week to go. I'm hoping that we come closer to 50% participation this year. There were some new callsigns that entered this year and from the comments I've read, it seems just about everyone had a good time!

2) My results:

Larry - W2LJ - NJ

Skeeter #181 - All CW

Single Op

Skeeter QSOs - 27

Non-Skeeter QRP QSOs - 0

Non-Skeeter QRO QSOs - 0

S/P/Cs - 14

Station Class Multiplier X4

Bonus - The number of "Bonus Skeeters" that I worked - 3

not bad for limping around with suspect batteries, hunting and pouncing with only  2.5 Watts!

3) Speaking of the batteries - the little SLA looks like it's going to be fine. The larger SLA looks a bit on the iffy side. The Powerwerx battery indeed looks to be shot.

To end things today - we had our first "kiss" of Autumn this morning and I guess that's appropriate for the 1st day of September. When I awoke this morning and looked at the weather station display it was 55F (13C). It hasn't been that cool in the morning since last May - maybe even April.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

A teenage wasteland

I've never been a big VHF/UHF guy. I've always been a HF CW guy. And now I think I know why.

I recently have been checking into the Middlesex County Chat Group Net which meets every evening at 8:30 PM local time on local repeaters. It's a social net that was started and continues to be run by my friend Marv K2VHW. It started with the onset of COVID as a way for local Hams to keep in touch with each other and not go stir crazy.

This morning, I was listening to a daily morning net that's held on the W2LI repeater. Their group is down at the Twin Lights down in the Atlantic Highlands activating for International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.

After listening to both of these nets, I have to wonder why I even bothered dusting my handhelds off and charging them up. The nets and the participants themselves are fine and fun to listen to. But what's with the juvenile QRM tactics? Throwing dead carriers, singing, moaning, wheezing, belching, snorting and varied other sound effects.

Seriously? Your life is so devoid of meaning that the only joy you get is to interfere with a bunch of people who are just trying to enjoy their hobby? That is so very sad.

Maybe it's just the proliferation of inexpensive radios. Maybe it's just an increase in mental illness. Whatever it is, it's extremely annoying. I've seen kindergarteners with better manners than these idiots who have nothing better to do with their lives.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

By Golly ....... it worked!

Thursday evening I finally bit the bullet and programmed the QYT K-8900D that I purchased from Amazon a couple of weeks ago.  I now work in the IT field, so you'd think that this would be like second nature to me, but no. To me computers are still part black magic. I was dreading the process.

I was expecting COM Port errors, communication errors between the radio and the laptop, all sorts of things that would make me go screaming into the night. I was pleasantly surprised when the whole process went like a hot knife through butter. 

I fired up CHIRP, connected the radio to the laptop using the provided cable and pressed the "Download radio profile" tab and half expected the computer and/or radio to laugh at me. To my amazement, the little progress bar quickly sped across the screen and what was factory programmed into the radio appeared on my laptop screen. No snickers, no guffaws, no knee slappers.

I then made what changes I wanted to, crossed my fingers and pressed the "Upload profile to radio" tab. Again, the little green progress bar whizzed across my laptop screen and I was finished. The entire deal took less than five minutes

No looking for drivers, no looking into COM Port settings, no muss, no fuss. I was relieved.

I put the unit into my Jeep Friday morning. The K-8900D that was in there has some wear and tear on it, so it will go down to the shack to be used to check into the various ARES/RACES nets that I participate in each month. This older unit is missing a knob, which seems endemic to these units. I have no idea where it went. I think it was sucked up into a black hole and ultimately arrived at the same location where missing socks from the clothes dryer go.

I saw replacement knobs being offered on eBay by some guy in Lithuania. I purchased a packet of two and they should be here later this month. I'm not used to things going like they're supposed to.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Miscellania

I recently put a new 144/440 MHz antenna on the car.  Before we left for Lake George, I took the Jeep to the carwash. While temporarily removing the antenna that I had on the roof, I noticed that repeated openings and closings of the rear hatch had caused the jacket and braid of the coax to become damaged. I didn't replace it with anything too expensive, or tall, as I park in a parking deck. It's a simple Nagoya resonator on a magmount. It does the job.  I routed the coax a different way this time, through a path that hardly ever requires an open or close, so I should be good to go.

I also purchased another QYT K-8900D through Amazon.

It's not an Icom or Yaesu, but it's inexpensive and it satisfactorily does what it is supposed to. I had some gift cards from Amazon that were just sitting around and the VHF/UHF mobile that I had in the shack for ARES nets recently gave up the ghost, so I purchased another one of these. The K-8900D that I have in the Jeep was purchased and installed when I still had the Patriot. It has to be at least 4 years old or so and it's given me and continues to give me decent performance, so I went with another. It's not like I'm on VHF/UHF a lot anyway, so it seemed foolish to pop $200 or $300 or more, especially as I want to purchase that QMX later this summer.

I don't think I mentioned that I successfully replaced the coax on that magmount that I intend to use with the Buddistick. I did that on Saturday morning. It wasn't difficult, but it would have been nice to have an extra pair of hands. And how I hate how those tiny pieces of braid can get stuck in the skin of your finger pad. Worse than a wood splinter, by far! 

Checking out the connections with a VOM showed a short from center pin of the PL-259 to the hole in which the Buddistick will be screwed into. There was also a dead short between the PL-259's outer shell to the ground of the mount. And happily, there was an open between the center and ground connections. In theory, it should work just fine.

On a disappointing note, Marianne reminded me that we have a family event to attend this coming Sunday.  It starts at 1:00 PM and is about 30 or 40 miles south of us at one of my cousin's house. There will be no Flight of the Bumblebees for W2LJ this year. Heavy disappointed sigh.

To end this post on a few high notes, Bill W2AOF, Ron N2LCZ, Marv K2VHW and I met on Zoom this past Saturday evening to collaborate on SPARC's Field Day submission. Bill W2AOF successfully uploaded it to the ARRL before the deadline (which was yesterday) and according to what I was able to tell, we accumulated several hundred more points than we did last year. It will be interesting to see how we placed in the Hudson Division as there were a few clubs that cancelled their Field Day efforts as a result of the dire weather forecasts for that weekend. As it turned out, the weather was pretty much spectacular - until right before teardown, when all Hell broke loose!

Lastly, between several of us who were listening, and by our combined efforts, we were able to correctly copy that crypto Morse Code message from KPH for my friend Tim K0ETH. Tim let us know that he was able to plug our copy into an Enigma machine that he has access to (I guess it helps to be a real life nuclear physicist!) and decode the crypto message. Success!

What was copied was:

DONITZ FRLOOKS 2013Z OKTOBER 7  BT 100  BT DBK WSE  BT EVJMZ VISFP CVCBJ SNQDF CVNPL CNFFO EVSLH YOSKU EUWPB QLRGR XRGNW OFQCQ KZRJT AUOLG DVSGM GJFRR OZLRC ANKRI NNTCG WVLRC

This decoded to:

"FORCED TO SUBMERGE DURING ATTACK X DEPTH CHARGES X LAST ENEMY POSITION GRID AJ NINE EIGHT SIX THREE X I AM FOLLOWING".

I was very happy to have been asked to help and am glad that my small contribution aided his efforts.

My Dad served in WWII in the Signal Corp. At the beginning of the United State's involvement, he was stationed in England and was part of the team that were developing and refining RADAR. My Dad never became a Ham, but I like to think that my Amateur Radio genes came from him. Thanks, Dad!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Being prepared

 A few months back, in April, I ended up trading in the Jeep Patriot for something newer. The Patriot was 167,000 miles old and needed a new catalytic converter (estimate close to 2K). My wife Marianne brought up the point that it wasn't worth spending any further money on the vehicle, as it had done well for us over the years, and we had gotten our money's worth out of it. The possibility existed that it was just going to become a repair money pit.

She went online and located a "pre-owned" 2018 Jeep Cherokee at a local Honda dealer that was turned in after a short term lease.

This is the nicest vehicle that I have ever owned and I was a bit hesitant to put holes in it and mar the interior by installing my VHF/UHF radio. I have been driving around without since. This past Wednesday and Ida changed my mind.  However, I still didn't want to permanently deface the interior by drilling screw holes, so I came up with another solution.

I took a piece of plywood, cut it to a size that I thought would work best and I painted it black. It slides in between the driver's seat and the center console and because of the almost non-existent gap, stays put. I attached the radio to the plywood and that's how it's mounted.

I put black duct tape over the edges of the plywood to make that look a more finished and I put some Velcro (the soft, fuzzy side) over the screw heads securing the mounting bracket so that they can't scratch the side of center console.

I'm waiting on a new antenna, a Compactenna 2M/70cm dual band antenna. 

When I first saw this compact antenna a few years ago, I was skeptical as to how good a performer it could possibly be. My friend Tim AB2ZK has one and he raves about it. I want a low profile antenna so I can park in the deck at work with no problems. The 5/8 wave antenna I had on the Patriot forced me to park outside, as it would bang into the low hanging pipes protruding from the deck ceiling. I was also afraid that I would one day damage one of the low hanging fire detectors that are there.

The antenna is due to arrive this week and I should be in business by next weekend.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

It works!

Last night I checked into the two monthly ARES/RACES nets that I make an effort to attend. Both Joseph and Marianne got home late from school/work, respectively.  I ended up checking into the earlier 7:00 PM Middlesex County ARES/RACES net from the dinner table, using the handheld. Bad manners, I know, but you do what you have to.

John N2DV,  our Emergency Coordinator for Middlesex County, who is a reader of this blog and was NCS for the net, caught me on the air afterward and asked me if I had checked in using the new J-Pole. I must have been a little noisy with the handheld, which is spotty, depending on where I am in the house, or how I hold it. We talked for a bit and I explained the situation.

John W2VTV, our Section Emergency Coordinator must have been listening as well, because when I checked into the 8:00 PM NNJ ARES/RACES net, he told me upon check in that the J-Pole was doing a good job. I have no idea as to whether I was dead full quieting or not, but even if I wasn't, it doesn't matter. Just the fact that I was audible enough to be heard well and check in and participate from the inside my house was success enough for me.

For the record, this is a KB9VBR J-Pole.  It's made from copper tubing and will last longer upon this earth than I will, in all probability. It's fed with RG-8X coax. I know, not the best choice for VHF/UHF but it's good enough. Even with cable loss, there's enough Watts to get the job done that I need it to do. As per the instructions, I made a choke balun of (5) four inch (10 cm)  windings of the coax and placed them about one foot (30 cm) from the feed point. A two liter soda bottle is the exact diameter needed and made a good form to wind the coax around. The antenna itself is being supported by four sections of surplus military mast. That puts the base of the antenna roughly at a height of about 24 feet (7 meters). The antenna itself is about a meter long, so the tip is at 8 meters - roughly. Maybe a bit more or a bit less.

Buying an antenna does go against my grain a bit. I like to build my own whenever possible - especially for portable use and Field Day. But this one is made of really good material and I never brazed/soldered copper tubing before. I figured by the time I bought a butane torch so that I could do the job myself, it would probably end up costing more in materials and time than if I just purchased one. So I'll tell myself that I'm supporting the economy and am helping a fellow Ham put food on the table for his family. C'est la vie.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

New VHF/UHF rig for the car.

About a week ago, I went to my car to participate in the Northern New Jersey ARES Net. The repeater that the net is held on is in Morristown, NJ. Not that far away; but not reachable with a hand held from my house. I went to the car to use the mobile rig, as it has more "oomph". It was then that I noticed my QYT 8900 mobile VHF/UHF radio was not transmitting. When I would key the microphone, the display would show full output, but I was not making it into the repeater. ANY repeater. I tried just about everything that was in memory - nothing.

That's definitely not good. As the EC for South Plainfield and as a member of the Middlesex County ARES Team, I can't afford to be without VHF/UHF capability in my vehicle.

I also have a son in college and am paying a hefty tuition bill, so I can't afford a new rig, either.

I went to Amazon to see what I could get for under $100 as that's all I was able to scrape together right now - the fact that Christmas is next week wasn't helping, either.

I "settled" on another QYT product - this time the KT-8900D:

Yes, indeedy a Kenwood / Yaesu / Icom product would have been much preferred. At this time, I cannot afford that - and the QYT 8900, while it lasted, provided me with a couple years of good service. The quality of received audio was very good to excellent; and no one ever complained about my signal other than the normal "being out of range" type of comments that you'd get with any mobile VHF/UHF transceiver.

It arrived last Friday and I began to program it last weekend. Manual programming as the programming cable that comes with the radio seems to be a piece of junk. Using the QYT software or CHIRP, I get the "Cannot Clone Radio" error with both Windows 10 or XP. Manual programming isn't difficult at all, it just takes more time - and I cannot change the splash displays manually, either.

It would be neat to change that "KT-8900D" display to "W2LJ" - but such is life. At least I have emergency capability back up and running should the need arise (God forbid!)

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Took a chance

on another small mobile radio from China.  I got fooled when I purchased the Juentai JT-6188, but decided to take another chance.  This time I picked up a QYT KT-8900R.

Same size and looks almost identical to the Juentai.  For all I know, one factory is making all these radios that fall under different name plates.

This time it's been a semi-success!  The radio works just fine, fits in the Jeep well, has ample and good sounding audio output.  It's nice to have it where my Icom was and not constantly bang my knee into it.  It does NOT have the "picket fence" audio problem that the Juentai had when my vehicle is in motion. (The Juentai serves as my shack VHF/UHF as it works fine when not in motion.)

The only slight problem is that for some reason the computer programming doesn't work. Using the QYT software or Chirp, it doesn't seem to matter. The error I get with Chirp is that the radio "won't go into cloning mode". I think that's probably a Windows 10 issue, because the Juentai programmed easily enough with Windows 7.

However, that's not a big deal, as this one is pretty darn easy to program using the buttons on the microphone and the radio itself.  There is one hitch that was driving me crazy, but that was explained in this video, at the very end. (YouTube to the rescue!)

 

So, if you're in need a capable (lower powered - 20W max) radio and you don't have an Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood budget - this little guy will serve you in good stead.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

First impressions of the Juentai JT-6188

If anyone out there is thinking of purchasing one - do yourself a favor - save your money and don't. At least for now.

I have rarely, if ever, run across a product in the Amateur Radio market that I would advise others to avoid like the plague. This may be the first.  The unit is innocent looking enough and after successfully using both Wouxun and Baofeng radios, it was a reasonable assumption (at least in my mind) that this little unit would be somewhat on par with those.  It's not.

The JT-6188 is small, compact, and not that hard to program (using a computer). It fits nicely in the car, doesn't use too much power and the audio output coming out of the speaker is loud - robustly loud. Of course, it's controllable with the volume knob.  The problem is the receive audio quality. On the dining room table, standing still, it's fine! Once installed and the car start moving? For some reason, it becomes garbled almost to the point of being unintelligible. At first, I thought it was a problem of the transmitting station not making it well into the repeater, but then I noticed even nearby repeaters with strong signals were hard to listen to while the car was moving. Switching out the Juentai with an HT revealed it wasn't an antenna or transmission line problem.

As a tiny little base rig - this is not a bad little unit. It has more "oomph" than your standard HT - about 20 Watts out at the High Power setting. As a mobile radio - it stinks, badly. A little "after the purchase" research revealed others reporting the same problem - but interestingly, others not. As always, hindsight is 20/20, and I guess I was blinded by the low price and convenience factor of not having to run power cables through the firewall to the battery.

I'm not going to toss it, as I can probably find a use for it someday. But it won't be in the car, and I guess I'll go back to using an HT connected to the external antenna along with a speaker mic.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the least

Programming Success!

Using the software from the Miklor website, as well as the drivers for the programming cable, I successfully programmed my Juentai JT-6188 VHF/UHF radio. Even though the software came on a mini - DVD with the cable, the Acer Aspire doesn't have an optical drive. This necessitated downloading the software and drivers.

Everything went as smooth as silk. The radio has 199 memory channels and I filled 45 of them. Looking at the instructions, it actually looks like manual programming shouldn't be too difficult, so I should be able to fill additional memory slots as needed, on the fly.

I hope to complete the install tomorrow, complete with a new dual band antenna. I actually broke the last one, if you can believe it. I backed into a chain link fence a few months back, and while I didn't dent or damage the Jeep, I did crunch my antenna.

Once everything is done, I'll post some photos.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP  - When you care to send the very least !